Why do you write fantasy?

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I don't necessarily limit myself to fantasy & SF. I once wrote a (bad) story set in Weimar Germany and I've got some stories about a lower league English soccer team in my head that are barking to get out. But mostly I write fantasy stories and that's because those are the stories that usually come into my mind.

What I do try to focus on though is writing fantasy stories that have to be fantasy, as opposed to writing something that is e.g. really a Western but with swords replacing guns, dragons replacing horses and elves replacing Indians. In other words, the fantasy & magical elements aren't just scenery but truly integral and the story would fall apart if they weren't there. I think it might have been Marion Zimmer Bradley who said that if you put a wizard in a story, he'd better do some magic; and if the only magic he does is to light a campfire when a match would have done just as well, you didn't really need him.

 

[Jabrosky]

I, personally, don't consider this to be research because I truly enjoy learning about ancient civilizations.

Don't get me wrong, I'm actually the same here. Otherwise I wouldn't even write about ancient civilizations in the first place. However, I find research a lot more fun and a lot easier if, instead of trying to learn every single piece of trivia associated with a given culture, I can narrow my research down to a particular subtopic that interests me or has relevance to whatever I'm writing. For example, if I were writing about Roman gladiators, I have no problem looking up information about Roman gladiators, but I wouldn't enjoy researching the Senatorial politics unless it had relevance to my story.

 

[Chilari]

Jabrosky, I feel the same about research. I like finding out about things in the past and researching certain topics that interest me, but researching for a story is less fun. It's more like a chore. So I don't do it; or rather, I do the research first and use what I know to build the story, rather than working on the story first and then seeking what's missing in the history books. I research (or just generally read about) what intersts me - currently ancient Britain and the city of Corinth in Greece, the former I'm reading about because I want to know about the early history of this here rainy isle, the latter because it's something I gained an interest of while at uni and now want to write a general audience book about.

 

[Addison]

I write fantasy because fantasy saved me. I was in a tough spot as a child, my heart torn, my world spinning me like a sock in a dryer. But then the babysitter took my brother and I to the library. He went to find Hulk and Daredevil. Being my first time (I was seven or eight) and just walked through the kid aisles looking at the spines, shiny and new or dull and crinkled with their funny stickers. Then I found Harry Potter, I saw the kid flying on a broom stick trying to catch a winged ball. I was interested, I scoured the shelves and pulled off more books. When we left the library I needed a bag. Not joking, I still have the bag. Once I started reading the world became solid and I saved my heart. I have since figured if Fantasy can help me, then it can help others, in extension then I can help others with my stories.

 

[glutton]

I write fantasy because the kind of stories and characters I imagine wouldn't really work in any other genre except maybe sci-fi.